There was a pause as Beat glanced at YoYo. The ginger haired boy wasn't really serious was he? Them? Go to school? It wasn't as if any of them...well, except perhaps Gum, was ever going to do well in it? Right? Thoughts like that one flew by his mind at a serious speed, as he considered the idea. In his mind, Beat just couldn't see himself sitting down and listening to a teacher, for hours, upon hours, upon hours. And what was there but to learn to it? Was this the brand new idea that the Rokkaku conglomerate had to control them?

In his back Beat could feel the hard surface of the round railing, the one he would normally use to grind, against his back. The material of his loose, yellow t-shirt, with the japanese symbols that meant whatever. - He had been schooled way back, before giving it all up, after realising he hated it, so he didn't really care for reading. - wasn't as loose as it once was, as it had glued itself to Beat's back, in the backside , due to the way he sweated, the railing doing a fine way of pressing it, and he could feel it against his back, just at roughly the same spot where YoYo would have been shot.

The pressure, and he was tall, though not as tall as Tab, was uncomfortable, so much so, that he had to use his arms as leverage, to get some more semblance of comfort. Though he knew that he shouldn't complain, as, compared to what YoYo had gone through, that had been nothing. Still...if just a slight pressure caused him such discomfort, a rubber, or salt, or whatever the heck kind of bullet Captain Onishima, the fat bastard, used in his gun, must have hurt like….Beat couldn't even imagine it. And the man had the upper hand on them, having placed a tracking ankle monitor on YoYo. They couldn't exactly run away.

Well...technically they could, just leave YoYo in the dust and run, despite the inevitable vocal protests by Gum, and the silent opposition by Tab, he was still the leader, and Beat had thought of the idea….one of the 300 ideas that had run through his mind, but that had been easily dismissed. One look at YoYo's eyes, and he had given it up. He couldn't - Wouldn't do that to the kid. He was his friend, plus the GG never left anyone behind. It was like a sappy kid's moral, but it was the truth. Or hadn't they come and looked back for YoYo? Even if it was mostly useless?

Beat did his best to swallow the fact that 15 minutes earlier he was just about ready to give up on YoYo. - Those were different circumstances. - He told himself. While he had almost been ready to storm the Bastille, load up his skates and kick up Captain Onishima in the jaw, akin to an american comic he had once seen, that wouldn't be effective. Luckily the situation had resolved itself, mostly by its own. Under….certain setbacks, like this school deal.

Beat looked at YoYo. The boy was shaking like loose leaves, and this time it couldn't be blamed on an incline when on skates. The boy was on trainers, not on roller-skates! He had even commented on it. No, it was clear he was nervous. It was clear that if the GG didn't accept the deal it would be him that would be hit with the consequences, those things, ankle monitors, the ones like the one at his ankle were designed to be hard to remove! They couldn't exactly pry it open with their fingernails, and the few tools they had were probably insufficient towards the job. YoYo needed them to accept the deal that the city council proposed, and he was looking at Beat, as Beat was the leader.

Beat was the head of the GG. He had been created them, and, while it was arguable if he had started doing this earlier than Gum and Tab, for they didn't keep an exact date of the day they had started tagging, and they had roller-skated since their days as children, wandering around, though not together, he, however, didn't feel very much like a leader right now. He had not only lost YoYo due to not letting him keep up with him, and not helping him when he struggled, he had screwed up and gotten him only because Captain Onishima, or his superiors - at this point Beat didn't really care who. - had made a power play.

"School you say!" - Beat whistled, he still wasn't so sure about this, and he figured that it wasn't his decision to make, after all, when it came to deciding where the rest of the GG spent most of their lives, it was up to them, but, as it came to him, he had got to say something. He was deep in his thoughts, sure, but he could still notice that YoYo was a tad uncomfortable and nervous, and he hoped that by talking, he'd defuse the situation a little bit. Maybe. Beat thought that part of being a leader was that, and, much as getting to comfort Gum, he needed to be there for YoYo. If that meant talking and acting slightly silly, then so be it. Though he had to admit, the close hugs with Gum were much more pleasant. But he was doing this for YoYo, not for himself, so. YoYo who had a funny face on. He hadn't really whistled like that in years, girls weren't too keen on it, and some of them had even joined the love Shockers, another group of "Rudies", made mostly of females, and the songs he heard on the radio, "Jet Set radio", weren't the kind you tended to whistle along to. Too fast paced, too funky, too rhythmic.

Speaking of the radio, ever since YoYo had appeared, Beat had turned the radio down almost to a point where it couldn't be heard, and he had put his headphones by his neck. All so he could hear YoYo, and the rest of his crew. He was the image of someone who was relaxed, and, who was, in the youth lingo of old "Chilling". Though those words had never been voiced by the young man, maybe by his father. He just heard. His green mint sunglasses, round lenses, already mentioned, hid his eyes, but they rested squarely and surely on YoYo. He was the main focus on his attention. Whether that was good or bad, remained to be seen.

"Yeah… " - YoYo's eyes, that were hidden behind his cracked sunglasses, focused intently on Beat, trying to gather what his reaction to his request would be. Though he tried smiling, and being easy-going, his smile had turned into a grimace. A grimace of pain. It turned out that, even when taking painkillers, shaking in nervousness, does a number on your back. - "Really Beat, I really need this, I wouldn't ask otherwise!" - The pain - it was getting worse. - Made YoYo clump up his hands into fists. Beat said something but he didn't really hear it too well. Whatever it was it didn't sound like a definitive "Yes", or even a definitive "No". YoYo wanted to scream, but he was aware that that would only worry his friends.

"You ok there, buddy?" - Beat glanced down at YoYo. His green sweatshirt had had the hoodie pulled back by all the shaking, and he could see small droplets of sweat starting to form around the basis of YoYo's forehead. Though that really didn't make much sense, unless he was getting sick, as the sun was getting down, painting Shibuya, a district of Tokyo, orange. YoYo's face contorted in all sort of grimaces and his smile contorted in all sort of downward facing shapes. His face was all sorts of twisted. And the worse part was...all the twisting he did was causing an even larger strain on his back.

"Yeah...I mean no...I mean of course… " - "A particularly hard sprain hit in right in the back, on the spot where he had been causing him to falter and to start sweating harder, as well as for him to drop down on his knee. - "Argh….I mean shiiii…."

"Okay!" - Beat's voice cracked, which would be funny for YoYo and the rest of them if they hadn't just become so worried with YoYo, or, in his own case, with his pain. Beat himself didn't notice it, and even if he had he would have paid it no mind, - "There's a lady here! Let's take care of you!"

Gum sent him a look that just screamed, "You've just offended me", this wasn't the first, and it surely wouldn't be the last time she would hear YoYo using that kind of language. They shared a house, for heaven's sake.

"Sh….sorry, man, but you can't….take me to…" -YoYo's breath was labored, he had to pause often to try and regain his breath, and sometimes he had to stop altogether to bit his cheek so as not to scream a curse word. One of the heavy ones, at least. The last few words were spoken in such a low tone that it was hard for them to hear it. It was almost like the panting and wheezing were giving place to nothing at all. But he could still talk. The problem wasn't his lungs. It was the pain in his back. - "The garage….ankle monitor, remember?"

YoYo couldn't hold himself still anymore he fell to the ground. Beat was too stunned to do anything, even grab him, though he was the closest to him. YoYo hit the ground and started shaking. Almost like he was having a seizure. Sweat and tears now ran freely through his face. Beat, past his initial shock quickly moved in to help. But Gum and Tab were already there. Gum gave out another look at Beat, the second of such ones in about 5 minutes.

Amidst his thrashing around, as he had fallen on the ground, it was hard not to remember, the protuberance that stuck out like a sore thumb. Even with his three friends there, YoYo couldn't help but not stop. The hurting was immense. Gum had turned him on his back, so that she could see the wound, and she was starting to see why the situation had delved into such a thing.

Though she really couldn't get close enough to treat him - not that was anything much she could do, she had had some first aid training, but the purple blotch looked ugly, and not just in a health sense. - He indicated to the two boys that they should hold his legs and arms. So she could do something. Anything to help the poor guy.

Beat wanted to help, of course, but there was an extra incline of motivation that led him to be the first to move that time. He went for the arms, getting hit in the nose and his sunglasses tossed to the other side of the pavement. Luckily at that time not many people were walking there, which was just as well as YoYo was swearing with all that he had. If his face wasn't directed at the pavement, the things he said would offend every single one of them.

Not that Beat, blamed him, that stuff looked painful, he wouldn't want to be in his position, and a very small, very insistent part of him insisted that Gum was only in that position to begin with because someone, no bets for guessing whom, had failed to do their job correctly. And it hadn't been Gum, no matter how much she wanted to blame herself for it.

He blinked at the light, without his sunglasses everything seemed...off, like put through some sort of filter, even though this was could the place where the bullet had hit, and Gum carefully maneuvering it, to approach it and try to take care of it. Further ahead, from his point of view, he could see Tab, holding both of YoYo's legs in the air. Stopping his struggle. And he did struggle. Though he was unable to move his legs, due to them being held by Tab. Tab was groaning. The effort to resist the struggle by the energetic silver-tongued red haired kid was great, and Beat was glad he hadn't taken the legs. That groan was the first noise, except the loud breathing noises he had heard Tab do all day. Not much made Tab make noise.

He finally got ahold of the arms. That floundered around like if YoYo was a fish. The kid was now totally immobilized. He wanted to give her a thumbs up to indicate her that it was ok to go ahead, but he didn't trust himself to do it. He realised why Tab had groaned, he had started sweating again. This was hard!

There was a loud shrill scream, as YoYo screamed like a girl, an even higher pitched girl than Gum could be capable of producing. Beat had to admit, it was impressive. His hairs at the back of his neck had stood out.

He winced as Gum pressed into the sore spot. From his view it looked like the touches were gentle, light, soft, but still, they must be torture to YoYo...only, to his surprise, as she pressed on, he started screaming less and less. In fact, her soothing voice, telling him it'd be over soon and it'd all be ok, wasn't really needed by the end. He was almost crashing and falling asleep.

"There." - Gum, lifted herself from the ground and patted her green one piece dress, letting out a sigh of relief to see YoYo visibly relaxed. - "That should anesthetize the area for a bit...if he's careful he'll be alright…"

Beat put out a hand to help YoYo lift himself up. Not only was the boy's face sweaty, but so were his hands. Both of them. YoYo smiled at Beat, and at the rest of them, a thankful look on his face.

"Thanks, Beat, Gum, Tab!" - He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, though, seeing as he was sweating all over, that didn't have the effect he seemed to want. He considered the problem, before simply using his sleeve to wipe himself.

"And don't you forget it next time you call me a bitch!" - Gum said, giving him the stink eye. Though she knew that it was due to the pains and she hadn't taken it very seriously, she saw fit to remind him.

YoYo looked at her apologetically shrugging his shoulders- "Well...I'm filthy. And I can't exactly go to the garage with you guys...I have to return to the fat bastard with your answer…" - He saw Beat hesitate and go to grab his arm. And he dodged it, by taking a step back, causing Beat to nearly fall off his skates. - Don't worry. if you guys say yes, they'll release me…" - His gaze drifted away. - "'course, if you say no...or say yes then we don't show, they'll capture us and it won't be pretty" - He started to shake before stopping, remembering the pains that had caused him minutes earlier. - "So what do you say, yo?"

Beat put his hand in his direction, so as he could shook him. - "I can't promise or speak for the others, I won't force them to do anything, but of course I will help you, dude."

The other two quickly agreed. After they had witnessed the effects of their attempted running and leaving of YoYo behind, even if not on purpose, that didn't well with them.

"Great!" - YoYo bent down and picked up Beat's sunglasses, handing them down to him. - "I'll go down to the garage later, with directions. I'll see you later!"

As YoYo started walking into the horizont Gum couldn't help but call out "Make sure they take you to the hospital!"

"That bad, huh?" - Though it wasn't visible, under the sunglasses, which thankfully, unlike YoYo's hadn't cracked, Beat lifted an eyebrow.

"That could get ugly" - She told them, slightly lower, so that YoYo, who was slightly ahead, already, didn't hear. - "I just didn't want to worry him. "

Beat sighed, he felt like he was 30, and he was only 17! What did that mean for him? Seriously, he felt old. And tired.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Tab shrugged. Pulling his shoulders up and down. Whatever the heck kind of situation it was they had gotten into, it wasn't worth being verbose about.

Together the three of them skated into the garage slash their "Rudie" hideout. Concern for YoYo, themselves, and what would happen in the near future always present.